Commercial aircraft that are typically used for transporting human passengers, their baggage and other articles that may accompany them, oftentimes may have capacity to carry additional cargo or other non-passenger items. Because commercial aircraft may fly to and from a variety of origins and destinations in a relatively short time frame, this provides an effective means of transporting such cargo very quickly to many locations, while also making use of the available capacity of the aircraft that would otherwise go unused. Mail and parcels are one type of cargo that has been delivered to various destinations through the use of commercial aircraft. In such situations, accurate tracking of the cargo is highly desirable. Unfortunately, most tracking operations are time consuming and involved. This makes it especially difficult to track items that are being transported via aircraft, where the amount of time between possession of the cargo by the air carrier and the flight departure may be limited.
Such prior art tracking of articles may involve the use of a handheld bar code reader or scanner for scanning bar codes associated with the items. Such handheld scanners may employ a pistol-style grip that facilitates holding of the scanner. When scanning of the bar code is executed with such scanners, a swiping or twisting action must be made with one's hand in order to pass the scan field over the bar code to ensure proper scanning. Because of the dexterity required, where numerous articles are involved, this can be quite fatiguing, and in extreme cases, may even result in repetitive motion injury to the individual.
Additionally, mail, parcels and other articles that are being transported may be grouped together in a manner that makes scanning of the individual articles difficult. The articles may be placed together in a stack, pile or other configuration that makes scanning of the bar code impossible without moving or adjusting the position of the articles. This may be quite difficult when using a handheld scanner, particularly when only one hand may be free to move or position the article to be scanned. The articles may be quite heavy, requiring the one performing the scan operation to set aside the handheld scanner so that the article or articles can be moved to a position where the bar code of the article being scanned is accessible. Furthermore, adjusting the position of such articles so that they can be scanned with a handheld scanner is quite time consuming and can result in time delays that may prevent the article or articles being shipped from reaching the next staging area or assigned flight to ensure that they are timely delivered. This is particularly true when the articles must be sorted, as well as scanned.
In most instances, after the article is scanned it must be moved to a different location. This may be to a different staging area, a cart or other transporting device. This also ensures that the article being scanned is not re-scanned, which may also slow the scanning operation. The person performing the scan must first scan the bar code of the article and then position the article in a different or sorted location for future handling. Thus, with handheld scanners, either the item must be moved with one hand or the handheld scanner must be set aside while the item is moved to the sorted location. Where the items are quite heavy or large, the scanner usually must be set aside. Such disruptive activities further delay the transporting and tracking process, making it less likely that article being tracked will be timely delivered.